Improvement in station-indicators



o. B. anlass Station-indicators. 1 v NO. 138,496. Patented May 6,1873.

w-y I *ser* i Y UNITED STATES PATEET OFFICE.

OLIVER B. GRIGGS, OF MANSFIELD CENTRE, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN STATION-INDICATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 138,496, dated May 6,1873; application flied October 23, 1872.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OLIvER B. Gardes, of Mansiield Centre, in the countyof Tolland and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Station- Indicators, of which the following is aspecification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, inwhichFigure l is an isometric view of the same.

This apparatus is more especially designed to indicate, automatically,to the passengers in a steam` railway car the stations to which theysuccessively approach.

The apparatus is represented in the drawing as contained in a box, a,which may be fixed to one end of the inside of the car, preferably nearthe roof, and with the side a a a facing the passengers. There should beone in each end of the car, or matters may be so arranged that the box acontaining the mechanism may be changed from one end of the car to theother, so that the passengers may always face the indicator.

The letter b indicates an arm, extending, by preference, from the top ofthe car, and so extended as to strike at its end a double inclinedplane, appropriately set by the side of the railway, so as to cause thearm to move either forward, toward b1, or backward,toward b2, accordingto the direction in which the train is moving. This arm b is attached,either permanentl y or otherwise, to the shaft c. In practice one ofthese arms will probably be set at each end of the car, and attachmentmade to the shaft c when the box is changed from one end of the car tothe other. The shaft c turns in the bearings c1 c2, and between thesepoints becomes the bell-crank c3. The letters d d indicate two slides,which may move back and forth on the pins c. From the slide` d projectsthe arm f, and from the slide d. the arm f. When the arm b is movedforward, the crank c3 will move the arm f and its slide d forward,

causing the spring-arm g' to catch in the teeth of the ratchet h1 on theend of the roll B, and thus partially rotate the roll. After the arm bWhen the arm b is moved backward the crank c3 will move the arm f andits slide'd backward, causing the spring-hook g to catch in the teeth ofthe ratchet h on the roll A, and thus rotate the roll backward; andcontinuous backward movements of the arm b y will cause the continuousbackward step-bystep rotation of the roll A. Thespring t' returns theslide d to its place-after each of the backward movements of the arm b,and the spring i returns the slide d to its place after each of theforward movements of the arm b.

An apron, C, of cloth or the like, runs from the roll A to the roll B,on which are the names of the stations in proper succession just thedistance apart that the rolls are rotated by the movement of the arm b.The double inclined planes upon which the arm b strikes are placed, bypreference, midway between the stations, and after the car passes one ofthese the apron C will present, through a proper slot in the face a a'c', the name of the next station. When the end of the route is reached,the apron is properly rolled to commence its return journey.

Each movement of the arm b can be made to strike a bell, to compelattention.

I claim as my invention- The combination of the arm b, shaft c, cranked,as described, arms f and f, slides d d', springs e'. i', spring-hook andspring-arm g g', rolls A B provided with ratches h h1, apron C, andspring h2, constructed and operated substantially as described, for thepurpose set forth.

' OLIVER B. GRIGGS.

Witnesses:

J Mns WALDEN, T. N. GRIGrGrS.

